The Individual Level Data Economy and Market-Making

Organizer

There is no single big data industry. Compare business intelligence data, terrorist surveillance data, and Moneyball’s sports performance data: each can be framed as a data economy, in which systems of firms gather, process, and apply data in pursuit of insight, operating in competition and collaboration with one another. This talk analyzes the data economy that exists to improve market efficiency: to match sellers to buyers at the individual level. It is a large system, estimated in our analysis to cost $156 billion to operate today, and is attracting regulatory scrutiny because it touches on the rights of citizens to be free of monitoring and surveillance. The talk identifies the economy’s value chain, its sub-structures, its pattern of evolution, and its future. It will conclude by speculating on implications of the data economy view of big data for MBA education.​